Jake primed for pre-season

Jake Livermore has stressed the importance of a positive pre-season.

The young midfielder knows all about the benefits - having missed out on key summer work twice already in his fledgling career.

Indeed, go back to 2008 and Jake suffered a broken leg during a July pre-season friendly when he was on loan at Crewe, so he knows what it’s like to have to sit it out as his team-mates are building up fitness for the campaign ahead.

It was a different story a year later as Jake scored against Barcelona in the Wembley Cup at the national stadium, one of those early friendly performances that no doubt helped him work his way into the first team squad.

He broke through for good last term when he made 38 appearances in all competitions, including starting all eight of our Europa League fixtures.

Now he’s ready to start all over again.

“Pre-season is so important,” said the midfielder. “It’s great to get off to a flying start once the season begins.

“I’ve missed a couple in my time here because of injury and you can really see the difference once you’ve got that work in.

“Once you experience not having a pre-season you realise the importance of it.

“Last season was a roller-coaster, but it was brilliant. It all goes so quickly when you enjoy yourself so I’m just hoping that I can make the same progress next season and hopefully we’ll have another good campaign.”